Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-04-30
add you know that I have a sonqs

Holly, IL you win accept tho trust, am going
TO leave You the boys sole guardian
lsprung almost out Of my chair. eMeip
] said
eyes, you. have not studied you for two
years for nothing. | have known for some
time that ! could not last, and since realized
the fact have been searching for some one
to whom could coniide the boy and this"
and he tapped the iron box. @You are tho
man, Holly; for, like a rugged tree, you are
hard and sound at core. Listen; the boy
will BIO the last survivor Of ono Of the most
ancient families in tho world, that Is, as far
as families can be traced. You win laugh at
me when l say It, but one day Il will be
proved to you beyond doubt that the founder
Of the family, my sixty-ffth or sixty-sixth
lineal ancestor, was an Egyptian priest OF
Isis, though he was himself OF Grccian cx-
traction, and was called Kallikrates, or tho
strong and beautiful, or, to be still moro ac-
curate tho beautiful in strength. His father
was, believe, one Of tho Greek mercenarles
raised by Hakor, Mendeslan prince Of the
twenty-ninth dynasty. In or about tho year
33O before Christ, just at the time OF tho final
fall Of the Pharaohs, this Kallilrates broke
his vows Of celibacy and fed from Egypt
with princess of royal blood who had fallen
In love with him, and was finally wrecked
upon the coast of Africa, somewhere, as / be-
levc, In the neighborhood Of where Delagoa
bay now Is, or rather TO the north OF II, no
and his wife being saved, and nll the re-
moinder Of their company destroyed in one
way or another. Here they endured great
hardships, but were at last entertained by tho
mighty queen Of a savage people, a white
woman Of peculiar loveliness, who, under cir
cumstances which l cannot enter into, bus
which you will one day learn, II you live,
from the contents OF the box, finally muIA
dered my ancestor, KallilSrates. His wife,
however, escaped, how, / know not, TO
Athens, bearing child with her, whom sh0
named Tisisthenes, or the Mighty Avenger.
Five hundred years or more afterward tho
family migrated to Rome under circum-
stances Of which no trace remains, and hertz.
probably with the idea Of preserving the iddU
of the vengeance which we find set out iff
Tisisthenes, they appear to have pretty regu-
larly assumed the cognomen OF Vindex, or
Ayongcr. Here, too, they remained for an
other five centuries or more, till about no
A. D., when Charlemagne invaded Lom-
hardy, where they were then settled, whereon
the head of the family seems to have attached
himself to tho great emperor, and TO have re-
turned with him across the Alps. and finally
to have settled in Brittany. Six generations
later his lineal representative crossed TO Eng
land in the reign OF Edward the Confessor,
and In the time of William the Conqueror
was advanced to great honor and power.
From TINT time till the present day can
trace my descent without break. Not that
the Vinceys--for that was the final corrlIp-
ton Of the name after Its bearers took root in
English soil--have been particularly distn-
guished-they never came much to the fore.
Sometimes they were soldiers, sometimes
merchants but on the whole they had pre-
served dead level Of responsibility, and still
deeder level Of mediocrity. From the time
of Charles II till the beginning of the present
century thcy were merchants. About 100
my grandfather made a considerable fortune
out of brewing, and retired In 1891 he died,
and my father succeeded him and dissipated
most of the money. Ten years ago he died
also, leaving me a net income of about $4,000
year. Then il was that undertook an ex-
petition in connection with that" and he
pointed to the iron chest, (which ended dis
astrously enough On my way back l trav-
eled in the south of Europe and finally
| reached Athens. There l met my beloved
wife, who might well also have been called
the Beautiful like my old Greek ancestor
There l married her, and there, a year after
ward, she died"
He paused awhile, his head sank upon his
hand and then continued:
"My marriage had diverted me from
project which | cannot enter into now.
have no time, Holly-I have no timel Ono
day, If you accept my trust, you will learn all
about it. After my wife's death turned my
mind to it again. But first it was necessary,
or at least | conceived that it was necessary,
that should attain to perfect knowledge Of
eastern Dialects especially Arabic. II was to
facilitate my studies that came here Very
soon however, my disease developed itself,
and now there is an end of me-" And 40
though TO emphasize his words, he burst into
another terrible Git of coughing.
gave him some more whisky, and, after
resting, he went on:
shave never seen my boy, Leo, since he
was a tiny baby. never could see him, but
they tell me that he is quick and handsome
child. In this envelope" and he produced a
letter from his pocket addressed to himself,
~ have jotted down the course wish fol-
lowed in the boys education. 1t is some
what peculiar one. At any rate, | could not
intrust it to a stranger. Once more, will you
undertake ito"
81 must first know what / am to under
take" answered.
eYou are to undertake TO have the boy,
Leo to live with you till he is 25 years OF age
not to send him to school, remember. On
his 18th birthday your guardianship win end,
and you will then, with the keys give you
now" (and he placed them on the table, aopen
the iron box, and let him see and read the con-
tents, and say whether or no he is willing to
undertake the quest There is no obligation
on him to do so. Now, as regards terms
My present income Is 1920 year. Half of
that income | have secured TO you by viii for
life, contingently Gu your undertaking the
guardianship IS 81 900 year remuner-
alton to yourself for you will have to give up
your life to it, and 9100 year to pay for the
board of the boy. The rest is to accumulate
till Leo is 25 SO that there may be sum in
hand should he WISH to undertake the quest
of which spoke"
| "And suppose | were to diep l asked
"Then the boy must become a ward of
chancery and take his chances. Only be care
full that the iron chest IL passed on to him by
your viii Listen, Holly, don't refuse me.
/ NJ. 4. 10 20